Week 7: Take 1, 003: The Eagle Has Landed

OK, here's one screencast that needs some revision, but we do have sound!!
My Progress is s-l-0 -w today.

I liked that Todd described these "mistakes" as "pieces of paper". However, the pressure is there to create something good and creative. This isn't it, but it is good enough for today!

Learning to Apply Technology takes time, perseverance, patience and a lot of help from friends. Add the fact that most ten years olds can do this in 15 mintues and my degrees seem like those pieces of paper.


http://www.screencast.com/users/awelden/folders/Jing/media/1e6f9c04-99d1-43f8-8c49-325ef60ec1b3

Week 7: Screencast with Sound

Here is a very mediocre screencast with sound. After 4 tries of trying to do something with substance, this is the only one would get sound.

Thanks to Todd, Lori and Tina for help and suggestions. Some of us just have a electronic vortex that sabotages electronic systems.

http://www.screencast.com/users/awelden/folders/Jing/media/79d8b18a-e008-40c3-82fa-2315c571d75d

Week 7: Screencast: Introduction to the VLC

Here is my screencast


http://www.screencast.com/users/awelden/folders/Jing/media/46453869-6272-4b8d-9f2c-a0f1404d9670

Week 7 - Appying Technology

July 14, 2009

Today, besides learning to do an audio (with help !), I applied what we have learned in a very personal way, and I was convinced by one of our instructors to add this to my blog.

During my lunchtime, the nurses in a skilled care center where my mom is living, SKYPED me for a medical update. It was their first time to use SKYPE and they were rather jazzed! Over 2,000 miles away, I could use what I've learned to help them get the video running and we moved into the future. I think it is very progressive of them to be using this technology in a nursing home! I'm sharing this with you, as it may spark an idea or two for you EDU 255ers.

WeeeeeeK 7! Audio

Amy Welcomes You to the Verde Learning Center!

Week 6: Stopping by Net, A Poem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjaa15XFco

I invited as many friends from class as I could . I have tried ten times to get this published onto my blog. Linda is my witness!!

WEEK 6: Creating Me on YOUTUBE

I am so glad it is Week Six. I really enjoy the class, but it is really difficult for me to keep up and maintain what I have learned.

This week I signed into a Webcast that I learned about through my Learning Center Assistance list serve. (A List serve might be considered a SNS for people of the same profession. )
The Webcast was given by two Canadian educators and over 200 people logged in. One could view who had logged in, eventually, there was a thumbnail photo of the two speakers and a screen where participants could write comments. This comment space was intriging, as it seemed more like a place to "pass notes". About 75% of the time, Participants were making comments unrelated to what the speaker was saying!! At one point, even one of the speakers was writing a comment as he was talking to all 200+ participants (we could hear the key clicking). It was easy to sign in to participate and another new experience in technology. Thanks for taking this class,I was impressed that I could understand what the speakers were talking about! Great to be able to connect with so many educators from around the world in one hour. I do think we need to really use the time to focus on one topic and save the social contacts for "after class". Am I a dinosaur?? What do you think?

Then, we had the YouTube assignment. Well, Tina, Lori, Linda and I couldn't figure out where to start. With some help, we learned by Tuesday. I went home to recored using my iMAC only to discover that my video wouldn't sync with my audio. I tried downloading MP3, but that didnt' seem to work. I did get the video made. I wrote a poem and dedicated it to YOU, my awesome classmates and instructors, who have prevailed with me throughout the course. I did post it on my wiki, but here it is (I hope) for you so see in my blog. I'll try below!




Cheers!

#5: IF a Picture Paints 1,000 Words, Why Can't I Embed 1?

Hi EDU 255 Classmates,

Here are two activities that I think will work.

Language Arts

Elementary - College

Objectives:  

Students will:

 1. Learn the concept of "setting" by updating a fairy tale to modern times,

2. Learn to search for appropriate photos or create appropriate digital photos that illustrate their modern fairy tale, save in a picasa (or flickr) and embed the modern fairy tale with illustrations into a class blog. 

Materials: 

old fairy tales to read

examples of updated versions of fairy tales   

•   The Politically Correct Gingerbread Person
  
• Cinderella at the Night Club
• 3 Little CEO's

Computer access to Internet

Picasa tutorials

Method of Delivery

The Writing Process

Independent or Partner Writing

Design

After individuals have written their story, they work in partners to find appropriate photos to illustrate their photos. No more than five photos per book. 

Evaluation

Students assigned to read story on individual blogs and leave comments about the modern setting. How did it improve, change, and/or ruin the original?

Assessment

a rubric that is share prior the assignment

Activity #2

Where in the World? (A Game)

Objectives:

Students will:

Learn relationship of Latitude/Longitude and geography and culure

Materials

Computer Screen

Latitute/Longitude Numbers

Method of Delivery

Whole Class   Groups  Partners

Design

Find photos to illustrate life at determined Latitude and Longitude numbers. Save onto a shared photo site.

Student begin to predict what photos will look like, based on the numbers alone. 

Students begin to predict the numbers, based on the photo alone.

Evaluation

Phots or numbers match the predictions by 95% 

Assessment

Students write a paragraphy of the way latitude/longitude is linked to geography and culture.

To photos used to illustrate their point.

Shared on individual blogs.

I need to work on the Web 2.0 sharing  some more.  Any ideas for me?

EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

Talk of a Better Future
"No longer guidance for the future
It will just be genuine insight and inspired potential we experience"
-whiteboard magnetic poem from the Verde Learning Center June 25, 2009


RE: Steve Hargadon's "article" on effective social networks.

Starting a blog reminds me of sending an article off to publication. You have to face critics. Since this class is required to complete coursework for a class I am taking, I really hadn't cared too much if anyone was reading and responding to me. Many of the points Steve makes, such as collaboration, your role as a facilitator to help get the conversation going, and the need for early adapters "adapting" because they can take a leadership role are all the very same things that take place in a good classroom. My challenge is to learn how to manipulate the technology of blogs, BB, wiki, SNS to create this same dynamic. How will I do that? By reading good examples, taking some risks at joining some academic SNS's, gaining some experience in doing these activities and finally, by assessing my learning. Sounds familiar, eh?

Back to the SNS, Mochalive for a moment. This was the group that I wrote about and joined yesterday to learn Italian. Today, there was a name in my email wanting me to assess another member's English. Very cool! However, I wondered if anyone is monitoring all this. I also recall my joy at getting one of my middle schoolers to read a book on caligraphy only to learn from my colleague that the student was using it for his gang graffiti! As educators, do we question how the knowledge gained from an SNS will be used? What do you think? (example: What if someone unknowingly taught English to someone who ends up being a member of a terrorist group? ... Maybe I should be writing spy novels

LIVEMOCHA - A COOL WAY TO LEARN A LANGUGE

Dear All,

This week for your comments is : www.Livemocha.com - the social way to learn a language.

Livemocha is a SNS where registered users can learn languages through audio-visual lessons, live peer coaching and other language resource activities.

Started in Sept. 2007, by March 2008, it boasted having 2,000,000 users from over 200 countries. I'd say that makes it popular.

It is the first major language learning tool to use SNS technology. They have a video that I will try to post.

I did sign on, as I want to assess as a learning resource for use with our YC students who come to the VLC - either for ESOL, English Modules or Spanish help. I also have a personal interest in taking Italian, as that is part of my heritage.

The lesson I view was interactive and required me to match phrases of words to photos. It was more difficult than it sounds.

That's it for this week, as I lost my first draft when I did a spell check. Be careful!!

Ciao, Bambinos! (Words from my first lessons)

RU BORG?

Hello EDU ers.,

 All this SNS stuff reminds of the  BORG on STAR TREK.  We will all have one collective mind, connected to eachother with our Wikis, Blogs, Ning, tags, emails, tweets, and cell phones. 

I was in my office today, my computer open to microsoft office, YC webpage, my wiki, my new Ning, my blog...my phone messages were blinking, my cell phone rang and the VLC SKYPE computer was bleep bleeped simultaneously. OMGOSH! I didn't know what to answer first! 

I am still digesting the information on SNS, so I'll have to get to the real assignment tomorrow. Plus, I forgot the questions I'm suppose to answer that are on the BB site and I'm not logged in. 

Goodnight. 

Week THREE: WIKI MY BLOG

I must admit, I see all kinds of applications for using Wikis, and am really jazzed about the application to education...especially writing.  The National Writing Project has been using many of the same ideas, (authentic writing, writing for a real audience, empowering students through choice...) but this new delivery system is so quick, easy, fast, so...so wiki cool! 

Coming back down to Earth, here is the task for the assignment at hand. 

The wiki I created this week is for creating a database of fantastic resources for the tutors of the Verde Learning Center to use. The wiki is broken down into pages by subject area: Math, English, Sciences, Study Skills, and Verde Learning Center (VLC) Projects. We have tried for almost a year to create a way that tutors could share resource materials electronically. Having our own wiki is going to be so cool. I already invited all the summer tutors to join the wiki and one of our Math tutors has already added to it. I predict that faculty (I guess I need to invite them to join, first?) will add their class videos and other fav resources. If they do, that will mean that the tutors will have access to the video class lectures for any class on campus! A student can come in an review the session with the tutor, or SKYPE the VLC and review the video with the tutor on line. Is that the coolest or what!

My favorite aspect of the wiki is also my favorite thing about teaching...you gathering people together, present and idea and watch it take off! For example, our math tutor already embedded a math video, which was one of our assignments. I was thinking, this is great! I'll just assign the tutors to do the rest of my homework assignments! Fortunately, I remembered the instructors can check to see who posted what, when. Drat! Guess I'll save that embedding project for tomorrow. 

TRENDS in EDUCATION: Just BLOGGPOLLUTION?

Hello EDU 255 Bloggers, 

I am responding to the Canadian chaps who are required reading this and last week. (Actually, I started to enjoy reading it this week...less charts with arrows .)

"We use new tools to do the work of the old." - M. McLuhan

Applying what I know about brain research and learning to my own learning in the class, I am trying to make a connection so that I can understand this material. Keeping that in mind, I proceed.

What if we were asked: 

Are libraries just a fad? 

How about that new moving horseless carriage, the automobile? 

Will all American households have a ______? (phone, TV, computer)

Absolutely, the nature of education is changing due to technology. We are in the digital age. We are just beginning to learn how to apply this knowledge in the classroom. It is not a trend. However, as the reading notes "educational technique is lagging behind technological development".  I agree with that statement and suggest the reasons for it below:

• Teachers must adhere to state mandates that are often antiquated. For example, the current assessments used across the nation to measure  students' academic achievement are mostly all multiple choice (re: multiple guess) standardized tests. In the early 1990's AZ was ahead of the assessment game and was using authentic tests to measure student achievement. Then, there was a political shift in state and federal government, and out went the new and back in came the old ways to measure. Educational technique is influenced by politics. With the tools now available to learners and educators, I see this as one of the fastest ways for those who are motivated and have resources available to them to soar. Unfortunately, will those learners be the ones to receive the scholarships and join the tradition forms of formal education? Or, maybe, having the degree will become less essential, if one has created their own credentials via an e-portfolio?
• Technology is mainstreamed. Computers are used at the gas station, the grocery stores and my recent dental X-rays were digital. I am not saying this means that every household has a computer. During a recent in service to a local high school when I asked the students how many had access to a computer at home only HALF of the students raised their hands. (12 out of 24). I am concerned about the disparity and the feelings of disinfranchment this is causing. What are your thoughts on that topic?

In summary, I feel technology influences education. The form of education will be one that is blended. There will be those who use contructivist philosophy to teaching  and there will be the educators who will be limited by their current inaccessability to the same tools.

The New INTIMACY

In response to Will Richardson's post of June 9. 

So why is it difficult for educators to join up to step up to the blog plate? I agree we are afraid of the transparency and privacy (or lack of ) and feel challenged by a " different way of being in the world".  Indeed, I believe there is a different view held by some folks concerning boundaries.

Gosh, I think boundaries are a good thing. I don't care to know everything about  everyone. I want to continue to be the one who decides what another being can know about me, NOT a database.

Isn't having control over who my words reach as powerful as not knowing who is reading my words? If I am unaware of my impact, are my words less powerfilled (Ann Frank comes to mind)

Yes, we are going to be marked as the start of something historical. But the stars are still out tonight, and I think of my friends who still use blessing rituals that are centuries old and guarded by special members of their culture. I think it a sad place if both world views can not coexist somewhere in the future. 

EDU 255 - Wk #1 - My Teaching Philosophy

Hi Gang - Here it is! Posted and toasted on the blog and in BB. I get by with a little help from my friends. OOPS. How do I attach this???...LORI!!!

My Teaching Philosophy
Amy Welden

He is able who thinks he is able. Buddha

To be a teacher, one must be interested and knowledgeable not only in content, but in the person who is learning the content. To be a true teacher, one must be a quiet observer, who holistically assesses the learner and matches the tools of the profession to the style of the learner. Since teaching involves individuals, there is never one right formula for teaching everyone. Like a blank canvass, the artist carefully chooses which colors, brushes to use to creating the best design – teachers are artist.
What you get is who you get: Most often, in the formal setting, teachers are not allowed to choose who walks into the classroom. Students come from all backgrounds. A teacher, as observer, watches her students. What is new today about this person? What is consistent about this person? Like a person in the medical profession who sees things for what they are, makes a diagnosis and designs a course of action - the teacher makes a daily assessment, adjusts her curriculum and begins today’s lesson.
Be prepared with as many tools as possible: People learn at different rates and in a variety of ways. A great teacher needs to have a wide range of teaching strategies available, be prepared to use them or change them or adjust them and be willing to back up and punt, regroup, refine, try again, accept setbacks and determined to move on, if not forward. A teacher uses teaching strategies not only skillfully but creatively as well.
Provide inspiration: Think back to the people in your life who inspired you the most. My guess is, they were ones who supported you with encouragement by finding something you did well, praised it and built from that moment. Although they recognized when a task was not completed perfectly, they were still able to find something good to say about with you completed…even when it was so small most people would have overlooked it. Most of us have observed a baby learning to talk or walk. What is the response to their first efforts? Yes, cheers and encouragement! Not scolding for mispronouncing the word daddy or mother incorrectly!

Teachers who excel in the profession are motivators and a source of inspiration. They accomplish these deeds through acceptance, by creatively applying a wide variety of experiences to match the learner’s style and by consistently using encouraging words.

First time to Blog

Hello, I am blogging and I don't know the consequences. Thank goddness there is spell check.
My brain is full as we have discussed 100 things I know nothing about. Am I boring you?Let me know. Welcome to my words!